Monday, October 13, 2014

Tomorrow, I am having surgery on my right hand, so this will be my last blog post for at least a week. Thanks to all of my regular followers. I appreciate the love!

For my last crafting day before my surgery, I created my first ever wedding card! Recently, I started a cardmaking group at my church. We were asked to create wedding cards for couples who marry in our church. I created this card for a happy couple due to marry at the end of this month.

I used paper from the Yuletide Carol and Seaside paper packs to create this card. I also used two of our beautiful wedding stamp sets: Celebrate Love and the Happy Couple. The cake is embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a nice shine, and then I added some bling to the center tier to give it some dimension.

The sentiment is from the Celebrate Love stamp set. I used markers to color in the flowers of the design. The sentiment is set onto a mini cluster embellishment that includes a vellum heart sticker from my stash, a small flourish, and silver shimmer trim.

For the inside of the card, I stamped a simple sentiment from the Happy Couple stamp set.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

October is Pastor Appreciation Month. I attend a small Methodist church in Brunswick, OH that I absolutely love! I wanted to make cards for the two pastors of our church to thank them for all they do for our church community. I took the opportunity to combine this with the Scrapping Buckeye Babes Color Challenge of Cocoa, Autumn Terracotta, and Barn Red.

For this card, I sought inspiration from Close to My Heart's Make It From the Heart Volume 1. I used pattern 24.

Here's what I came up with.

The sentiment is from Thanksgiving Wreath, a hostess rewards stamp set. And, the pumpkin and leaves are from the Pathfinding Workshop on the Go stamp set.

The pattern paper is from our new Paper Fundamentals Enchantment pack. This paper is great to use as an additional B&T. And, these packs coordinate with our exclusive color palette perfectly. They are two sided. The first side is the typical pattern. The reverse side is the pattern more subtle with a glossy finish. You can see the glossy side in the Barn Red "ribbon" in the image below.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

I lead a monthly card swap with some of my heart sisters. This month, I tasked the ladies with creating a crisscross card. A crisscross card basically is a card with two crossing flaps that contains an insert for your sentiment and message. I absolutely adore the Pathfinding paper pack, and thought it would be perfect for this card. In fact, I used Pathfinding B&T paper and the cardstock that comes with it, so no extra paper was needed!

For the band around the card, I used a leaf stamp from the Thankful Heart stamp set. I used markers to color the leaf adding texture and dimension.

For the card insert, I used markers to color the pumpkin from Thankful Heart. The hearts along the bottom are from a Hostess Rewards stamp set called Happy Hexagons.

If you would like to create your own crisscross card, you can find a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Okay, so Santa isn't coming to town for another two and half months, but I have been getting into the Christmas spirit, as you know, by making Christmas cards. Last night I was having trouble falling to sleep, because I just had this vision of a card I wanted to make. Today, I made that card.

I used cranberry cardstock to create the look of a Santa jacket. Added some sponged white daisy ink to create the look of Santa's beard. And, an embossed Santa sentiment to top it all off.

The belt and buckle are simply black cardstock and gold shimmer trim.

I can actually use the one sheet wonder pattern to create six of these cards with some scraps left over! And, it is really just a fun, playful card!

Saturday, October 4, 2014

In my house, our only decorations are photos. We have them everywhere. Photography makes great wall art that is also very personal to your individual family. Close to My Heart has a line of home decor items that are completely customizable. The My Creations Pennant Frame is a personal favorite of mine. The frame costs $8.95 and fits up to a 6x6 photo. It is easy to create with the Cricut Artbooking cartridge, which includes a pennant image completely compatible with the frame.

Here are two frames I made recently. One is appropriate to display those awesome Christmas memories.

And, one is for a true Cleveland Browns Fan. (Perfect gift for the fan in your life.)

Both of these will be on sale at my next Craft Fair. Details will be on my Facebook page.

I also entered both of these in this month's anything goes challenge for Take Heart Ideas.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Welcome to October! I absolutely love this month. The colors, the hoodie weather, caramel apples. Love it! But, just like every store you visit, Close to My Heart is already thinking about Christmas. Normally this sort of thing irritates me, but if you plan to make homemade Christmas cards, now is the time to get started! To help you along your way, the October Stamp of the Month (SOTM) Home for the Holidays can be yours for $5 with a $50 purchase! This adorable stamp set coordinates with the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge, which will help you make gift tags, holiday cards, and fun decor easily!

To celebrate the release of this stamp set, I created a card using Freshly Made Sketches #156.

For the card base, I used the Snowhaven paper pack. Then, I created my own B&T with the candy stamps and then topped it off with two of the image stamps and some shimmer trim.

I left the back of the card with the beautiful sweater pattern found in Snowhaven.

And, because the inside of the card is black, I added a piece of white daisy cardstock with the candies stamped again.

To further help you with your card making endeavors, CTMH is offering a free roll of chevron ribbon with a $50 purchase. More information can be found here: October Campaign

About Me

Hello, my artsy friends! I am Artsy April. If you are looking for creativity and helpful tips in papercrafting, then you have come to the right place! I am a former Close to My Heart Consultant, but now I use a wider variety of products. Although I do not sell the products used here, some of my post will include links to purchase instructions and/ or finished products. Welcome to my artistic journey!